ABSTRACT. It follows not merely from general philosophical considerations, but from the very nature of Theism itself, that God is not a logically necessary being. The claim that God exists necessarily may be read in either or two ways - either as saying "there is a divine being" expresses a necessarily true statement, or as saying "God exists" (i.e. that individual in fact picked out by the description "divine" exists) expresses a necessarily true statement. It is coherent to suppose that there are ultimate principles governing how things are, governing which other principles or agents operate in particular spheres for limited periods of time.